Shannon Sharpe's civil lawsuit is raising a lot of thoughts and also concerns over at ESPN. That's at least how his First Take partner, Stephen A Smith, put it. The face of the sports network weighed in on his friend's situation on The Stephen A. Smith Show yesterday, April 22.
Toward the end of the special episode is when he revealed how the higher ups at the company are going to move as this rape lawsuit unfolds. Overall, it appears that nothing is really off the table, including a permanent removal. Per TMZ Sports, Smith said that Jimmy Pitaro, ESPN chairman, told him, "We are taking this matter very seriously."
Moreover, Pitaro shared with the analyst, "We are looking into this very, very closely. And once we gather as many facts as we possibly can, we will go from there." Admittedly, Smith doesn't entirely know "what that means" for Shannon Sharpe. But Smith's got his back throughout what will be a taxing process.
"I'm wishing that he's innocent and all this stuff goes away, and he can continue to thrive with me on ESPN." Sharpe has been with the leading sports network since 2023 and signed an extension to be on the halo program. But while Stephen A is standing by him, he admitted that he's also a little unsure about how he's trying to prove his innocence.
Shannon Sharpe Rape Lawsuit
Shannon Sharpe and his lawyer Lanny J. Davis decided to leak alleged messages from the plaintiff, Gabriella Zuniga. They are extremely explicit and were shared to show how she was encouraging him to role play. Smith admitted they made him "uncomfortable."
In full, he said, "They revealed some of those explicit text messages. That was uncomfortable. I don't know if that's a strategy that would work." He also alluded that the ex-NFL player should have let his lawyer handle it instead. "One of the hardest things in the world for all of us to do is to just lay low and be quiet and let our legal team do it."
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